The CANADIAN MAY 2017 FEEDBACK Film Festival gave our audiences simply the best of short movies from Canada.

The theme of the festival was “INFILTRATION”.

Every film showcased what about a character(s) being consumed or penetrated by an outside force.

This was our first official lineup since 2012 of strickly films from Canada. It was an excellent curated showcase of movies in different genres and budgets from all over the great country.

There is a lot of talent in Canada, as was shown at this festival. The filmmakers and their team of extremely talented individuals (Actors, DPs, Production Designers, Editors, Sound Designers etc..) have a bright future ahead of them…. hopefully!

The sad question that’s been asked since I started in this business all the way back in 2000, and was asked long before that is: What is wrong with Canadian film?

The first thing to point out is there is nothing wrong with Canadian talent. Many (and I’m sure some who had their film programmed at this festival) will venture to the United States and do well there. Some will stay in Canada and have a nice career in the business working on the many U.S. productions that occur in the country. But sadly, many filmmakers will never reach their true potential due to lack of a real industry in Canada.

People have to go to the movies in droves in order for a Production Company to justify the expense of making a feature. To get people to come, you need a high marketing budget. Something substantial so even the middle class worker in small town Alberta knows about this film. And of course after you get them in the seats at the cinema, the film has to be good so they’ll tell their friends about it and the critics will give it a nice review.

No one wants to go there in Canada because of the initial overhead expenses and the risks involved. Most successful production companies in Canada are already doing well with the U.S. productions and government money going their way to make Canadian content (but with that there is no real incentive or drive to make money.). So when you’re doing okay, there’s no motivation to stick your neck out.

It was always my motivation to “capitalize” the Canadian Film industry. And to get talented filmmakers, like the ones we showed at this festival, a chance in the feature realm with a sizable marketing budget afterwards. Perhaps I’ll get there sooner than later.